TWD and ABC of the Month

What a week full of goodies. ABC of the Month is a delicious apricot-almond-berry buckle and Tuesdays with Dorie is a moist, flavorful gingered carrot cookie picked out by this week's host: Natalia of gatti fili e farina. I am curious to know what her blog title says in English. Intriguing.

I would also like to add that I am constantly jogging on the treadmill AND working out just to keep up with my nibbling. I LOVED both of the baked desserts!

Starting with Natalie's choice for TWD is the cute little gingered carrot cookie. I found myself following the recipe all the way to the point where I found out my kitchen no longer contains powdered ginger. I couldn't believe it! I have just about every spice known to humankind and yet I am out of ginger and did NOT write the missing spice down on my grocery list. I did the next best thing - I minced crystallized ginger. The pecan chunks, plump raisins, sweet coconut and shredded carrots were all added in. I never bake with raisins and I did this time. Raisins are good, who knew??

I told myself - Halve the recipe. What did I do? Make the whole recipe. Dorie says we can easily freeze these cookies so I am leaving just enough out to share and the rest are in the freezer for later. I have eaten two already, for heavens sakes!

Natalie, HUGE hugs for hosting this week and I have another go to cookie recipe that will be baked again and again. For the recipe, either buy Dorie's wondrous Baking cookbook or go to Natalie's blog for the recipe by clicking HERE. To see the rest of our baker's cookies, go to Tuesdays with Dorie baker blogroll and check them out.

Now for the ABC of the Month dessert, hosted by Hanaa! A delicious, moist, packed full of fruit BUCKLE. My buckle baked a little on the thin side but after the first bite, this was a perfect dessert. The apricots used came from what was leftover from my trip to Eastern Washington and I used HUGE red raspberries along with blueberries instead of blackberries. The sliced almonds on top is what really made the fruit and berry buckle pop. Sliced almonds are mixed with a little sugar then mixed with a tablespoon of egg white before sprinkled over the top of the buckle. The crystallized almond slices are amazing bites of crunchy, nutty, sweet flavor, adding to the tender texture of the dessert. What a great recipe! Flo Braker wins again with brilliance. The recipe is not posted. To get the recipe, you really should look at Flo Braker's cookbook called Baking for All Occasions. Really fun recipes with fun little stories before each recipe and photos that make you want to pull out more baking pans to get started.

Hanaa, I would never have made the buckle if it was not for this baking group. Thank you for inviting me and for hosting this week's recipe. The rest of you should check out Hanaa's blog because the lady bakes and decorates some of the most beautiful desserts. Very talented and sweet!